I read recently that some of the airlines are converting their pilot manuals to digital form. So, multiply 40lbs of paper times the number of planes in the sky (thousands) and that translates to trees saved as well as fuel (less weight on the plane). How are they doing this? By placing the digital equivalent on Apple iPads. So, for every 16 bags checked with the $50 fee, they can buy a pilot an iPad.
For the original article:
Alaska Airlines replaces pilot manuals with iPad http://usat.ly/iF14u9
Our daughter, Rebecca, (Captain, ASA / Delta Connection) says that they hope to have iPads by Christmas. Besides saving trees, the electronic version of the charts will be more accurate as they will be updated faster than the old paper version 😉